Spotify: Radiohead's Thom Yorke Slams Site

The frontman of Radiohead has taken action against music streaming service Spotify over its payments to new artistes.

Thom Yorke revealed he has pulled his solo songs, along with those of his alternative group Atoms For Peace, from the service.

He said that budding musicians get paid very little with the digital business model.

Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich argued that whilst streaming suits back catalogues for established acts, it simply doesn't support new artistes providing new music.

Yorke wrote on Twitter: "Make no mistake new artists you discover on Spotify will not get paid.

"Meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it. Simples."

Mr Godrich, who has produced for both Yorke and Paul McCartney, also used the micro-blogging site to complain.

"The numbers don't even add up for Spotify yet. But it's not about that. It's about establishing the model which will be extremely valuable," Mr Godrich said.

"Meanwhile small labels and new artists can't even keep their lights on. It's just not right."

The Spotify service allows for a limited free but gives unlimited access if subscribers pay monthly fees or either £5 or £10.

A spokesperson for the company told Sky News: "Spotify's goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music.

"We want to help artists connect with their fans, find new audiences, grow their fan base and make a living from the music we all love.

"Right now we're still in the early stages of a long-term project that's already having a hugely positive effect on artists and new music.

"We've already paid $500m (£331m) to rights-holders so far and by the end of 2013 this number will reach US$1bn (£662m). Much of this money is being invested in nurturing new talent and producing great new music."

The company added: "We're 100% committed to making Spotify the most artist-friendly music service possible, and are constantly talking to artists and managers about how Spotify can help build their careers."

But some musicians say the returns from CDs and digital downloads are more rewarding because the per-stream payments are comparatively tiny.

It is believed most artistes get less than 0.4p for each Spotify stream, wiht a hit garnering one million streams on Spotify only generating some £3,800.

Last month Pink Floyd's back catalogue appeared on the music site, with hit song Wish You Were Here attracting around a million streams.

But some major catalogues are still not available on Spotify, including those of the Beatles and AC/DC.

AC/DC has long argued that its music is meant to be as part of an entire album and not as individual songs.